Laptop fire

suneye

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Hi Just wanted to share this experience as it made me think about what would happen if I had been in my van. At the weekend I was working on my laptop when it made a puft noise and burst into flames pumping out unbelievable amounts of smoke. The wooden table it was on was also burnt. Fortunately I was at home with access to the outside but from typing away to smoke filled room and electrical blaze must have been about a second. This made me think about what would have happened if I had been sitting on the bed in the van and this had happened or if it had been unattended. So thought I would pass on this experience as it doesn't hurt to think about fire safety or about the dangers of lithium batteries in confined spaces!
 
Sorry to hear that. Thankfully such things are rare but your right to share it as each year we all have more and more electrical devices with batteries in our motorhomes. In mine at any one time I might have two laptops charging, a couple of E cig batteries, camera batteries etc and I do wonder how safe some of these chargers etc are especially the cheap ones. I have a golden rule though in that I never ever leave anything plugged in and charging in the van if I am not in it, I even unplug the TV and switch off the satellite dish at night. I had E cig chargers burn out twice, once at home and one in the van. You can usually tell when they are about to burst into flames from the smell but not if your sat outside or down the pub.
 
So an electric car is out then.:scared:
One good reason to keep them on a fire retardant cool pad,hope you are ok and get over the shock,er sorry fire.
 
FUJITSU LIFEBOOK laptops had a battery warning recently, but I could not get them to change mine, they called it thermal incident !
 
Was it a genuine charger and battery? I know a lot of copies have had problems over the years but OEM not so much, have been exceptions though
 
harrow said:
FUJITSU LIFEBOOK laptops had a battery warning recently, but I could not get them to change mine, they called it thermal incident !
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Fujitsu forced an update on my Lifebook a few months ago that they said was due to "thermal incidents". It resulted in my laptop battery no longer being able to be charged more than 65% full because the updated software detects the battery is four or more years old. I can now only get just over an hour out of it before it needs recharging. This seriously limits usability of the laptop as I can no longer use it for astrophotography unless I can charge the machine as I'm using it. FWIW, when Dell had a similar issue, they replaced the battery in my Inspiron laptop at no charge to me.

I probably won't buy another Fujitsu after this!
 
GeoffL said:
Fujitsu forced an update on my Lifebook a few months ago that they said was due to "thermal incidents". It resulted in my laptop battery no longer being able to be charged more than 65% full because the updated software detects the battery is four or more years old. I can now only get just over an hour out of it before it needs recharging. This seriously limits usability of the laptop as I can no longer use it for astrophotography unless I can charge the machine as I'm using it. FWIW, when Dell had a similar issue, they replaced the battery in my Inspiron laptop at no charge to me.

I probably won't buy another Fujitsu after this!
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I kept refusing the update because I might buy a new battery
 
barryd said:
Sorry to hear that. Thankfully such things are rare but your right to share it as each year we all have more and more electrical devices with batteries in our motorhomes. In mine at any one time I might have two laptops charging, a couple of E cig batteries, camera batteries etc and I do wonder how safe some of these chargers etc are especially the cheap ones. I have a golden rule though in that I never ever leave anything plugged in and charging in the van if I am not in it, I even unplug the TV and switch off the satellite dish at night. I had E cig chargers burn out twice, once at home and one in the van. You can usually tell when they are about to burst into flames from the smell but not if your sat outside or down the pub.
Click to expand...

Worries me more being IN the van when there's a fire!
 
A genuine Apple charger even though they deny it is genuine caused burning up the wall at home and killed the Ipad.

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harrow said:
I understand most of the replacement chargers sold are counterfeit.

I bought a genuine blackberry charger from ebay, but it was not genuine, got a full instant refund when I queried it.

So many fire are caused by electrical things.
Click to expand...

It was supplied with a Apple Product. Anyone with a Apple charger if you look up the USB socket on it there should be a tiny serial number printed across it on the end. Ours had burnt off so the said it wasn't a genuine Apple product.
 
The original poster did say “i was working on my laptop”. So I wouldn’t worry unduly about starting fires.
 
Sue, the lovely Mrs Oppy, had her tablet catch fire over night. Granted it was an old one donated by our son, but it was being charged overnight by the original supplied charger. Fortunately she was awakened by the noise, but our bedroom was full of smoke and luckily she woke up. Flamin' lithium ion batteries.
 
i had my ancient laptop "thermally repasted" this year... and i have noticed a significant reduction in the temperature of the laptop when i sit using it on my lap. i also renewed my charger at the same time. things do wear out.

But i have almost had 2 fires when using USB double adaptors in the van - the plastic melted because the cabling inside (i took it to pieces afterwards) was NOT sheathed into separate strands.... chinese.... obviously ... from Halfords ..... and probably most outlets as well....

i have had my laptop charger hard wired/switched from the 2nd leisure battery and nothing gets too hot anymore.
 
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